Guru appeals to many audience segments

Karthiga Rukmanykanthan

CINEMA: A young man who was taught and fed to live a simple middle class life decides to do something different and achieve something big. Don’t dream since. Dreams never come true, this is what the young Guru (Abhishek Bachan) was taught by his father.

Guru wanted to break his father’s beliefs and wanted to dream further as he succeeded in his life since he knew that his destiny was beyond the small village he was living in.

He flees to Istanbul as a teenager after failing his High school examination. After almost seven years of life in Turkey, he discovers his strength and decides to start his own business.

The director Mani Ratnam takes the audience through the life of this visionary dreamer by depicting how he overcomes the obstacles with courage and wins the game at the end.

The title comes with the tag ‘A Mani Ratnam film’ which is more than enough to create an expectation as he is one of the reputed directors of India who has a repertoire of memorable films in the history of Indian cinema. He has innovated unique filming techniques and they are reflected throughout this film.

As the film begins, it creates a feeling that this is yet another typical Indian film. However, as the film progresses, it confines to the story and takes the audience through the life of a winner. As the film got to satisfy all kinds of audience it also has Malika Sherawat performing for a song of her brand shot in the Middle East style.

The story begins from way back in 1951 and Abhishek Bachan is introduced as an energetic youngster extremely optimistic about his goals. Being the son of a School Headmaster of a small village in the Indian state of Gujarat, he travels abroad to work, where he realises that he could do much better things in his own country.

He marries Sujatha (Aishwarya Rai) for her dowry of Rs. 15,000 and leaves for Bombay with her and his brother-in-law to begin his own business. There he finds out that the Indian business and trade are totally dominated by the rich and the powerful but Guru doesn’t give up.

He finds out that the only way to succeed is to deviate from law. By hook or by crook he becomes one of the best businessmen of India.

The message that the director has tried to get across is that a country like India is ruled by various laws than intellectuals and that this is a barrier to many talented individuals who have the will to achieve.

However it is not conveyed clearly since the film had to also satisfy many other expectations of normal film goers.

The songs like ‘ek nehi dho’ (not one but two) have been included inevitably to satisfy ordinary audience. Incorporating such a song could trigger the mood created by the story; conversely it has proven that Abhishek Bachan has a hilarious dancing skill just like his father Amitabh Bachan.

This is the first time that Abhishek Bachan has proven his innate acting skills. His eyes show vivacity and confidence as his character Guru progresses in life.

He has shown vivid expressions especially in the scenes where he becomes paralysed with his lips twitched and hands incapacitated.

The war begins when Madhavan a reporter for the ‘Independent’ newspaper run by Mithun Chakravarthy reveals the secrets behind the actual growth of Guru’s business after he misuses this newspaper as a tool to combat his enemies. The continuous criticism by the ‘Independent’ takes Guru to the court.

Monologues are usually delivered by experienced artists whereas Abhishek Bachan does this with ease in the climax. As a supportive wife and a responsible mother of two kids, Aishwarya Rai has proven her talent to perform even matured characters.

The presence of Madhavan, Mithun Chakravarthy and Vidya Balan adds weight to the plot. Madhavan has been the pet hero for Mani Ratnam ever since their first Tamil project together ‘Alai Payuthey’ and this had made it easy for him to perform naturally.

The seniority and experience of Mithun Chakravarthy is reflected when he tells Guru that ‘I like the way you speak honestly with Intelligence, Don’t ever lose this attitude of yours ever in your life’. Vidya Balan performs a girl affected by disease from her young age, and the story woven around her is gripping.

Music by A.R. Rahman is mesmerizing and of course lyrics by Gulzar for the Hindi version and by Vairamuthu for the Tamil version are the remarkable highlights of this film. A film like this cannot survive without striking dialogues and lyrics hence Mani Ratnam has carefully handled it. Cinematography by Rajiv Menon has added some points to the film.

Mani Ratnam is usually very concerned about the technical stuff and the twists in the story but this time he has decided to focus more on to the story and therefore he couldn’t avoid the monotony in the scenes which makes the film to drawn especially in the first half.

The dramatic growth of Guru is quiet cinematic and is questionable whether it is feasible in real life. However on the contrary one could argue that a strong media like cinema should encourage themes that stress on courage and optimism that leads to success. For dreamers this is definitely one of the best films of the season and a movie that should be watched by each and every dreamer.

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